DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4098#0098
74 ALBANIAN ROBBERS, ISLAND OF CEPHALLENIA.
they ransom, lay villages under contribution, and set the govern-
ment at defiance. When they are pursued by a superior force,
they escape to the islands, and sharpen their weapons for future
depredations.
Considering Captain Jano as no common thief, and wishing to be
well with him, we returned his visit, and were received with cordial
civility, and complimented with richly-ornamented pipes, coffee in
golden cups, and the finest rosolios, the produce of his predatory
harvests, which were handed round to us by inferior thieves. On
our admiring the richness and magnificence of his attire, he per-
mitted my artist to take his portrait, and sent his dress and arms to
our house, that we might have leisure to draw them with accuracy
and detail.
However irreconcileable Captain Jano's system of warfare may
appear to our feelings, and to our notions of right and wrong, we
know that in the early ages of Greece,1 a similar system was followed
by whole nations, who lived by pillage, piracy, and massacre. Thu-
cydides2 tells us, that in his time it was practised by the Locri Ozo-
lai, the iEtolians, the Acarnanians, and Epirotes; and that it was
reckoned a glorious thing to plunder unfortified cities, and scattered
villages. Polybius3 mentions nearly the same thing of the iEtolians.
The neighbouring island of Cephallenia is a place of considerable
commerce, population, and riches : its circuit is near one hundred
and twenty miles, and it contains about 60,000 inhabitants. It is
surprising that Strabo4 gives 011I3- three hundred stadia, and Pliny3
forty-four miles to the circumference of this island. Both the geo-
grapher, and the natural historian are full of similar mistakes.
According to Strabo, it was once called Samos, or Same; a
name afterwards given to a division, and city of the island.
1 See Justin, b. 43. c. 3. Latrocinio maris, quod illis temporibus gloria; habebatur.
- B. I.e. 5, 6. 3B. 4. p. 331. 4B. 10. p, 4q6.
* Nat. Hist. b. 4. c. 12,
they ransom, lay villages under contribution, and set the govern-
ment at defiance. When they are pursued by a superior force,
they escape to the islands, and sharpen their weapons for future
depredations.
Considering Captain Jano as no common thief, and wishing to be
well with him, we returned his visit, and were received with cordial
civility, and complimented with richly-ornamented pipes, coffee in
golden cups, and the finest rosolios, the produce of his predatory
harvests, which were handed round to us by inferior thieves. On
our admiring the richness and magnificence of his attire, he per-
mitted my artist to take his portrait, and sent his dress and arms to
our house, that we might have leisure to draw them with accuracy
and detail.
However irreconcileable Captain Jano's system of warfare may
appear to our feelings, and to our notions of right and wrong, we
know that in the early ages of Greece,1 a similar system was followed
by whole nations, who lived by pillage, piracy, and massacre. Thu-
cydides2 tells us, that in his time it was practised by the Locri Ozo-
lai, the iEtolians, the Acarnanians, and Epirotes; and that it was
reckoned a glorious thing to plunder unfortified cities, and scattered
villages. Polybius3 mentions nearly the same thing of the iEtolians.
The neighbouring island of Cephallenia is a place of considerable
commerce, population, and riches : its circuit is near one hundred
and twenty miles, and it contains about 60,000 inhabitants. It is
surprising that Strabo4 gives 011I3- three hundred stadia, and Pliny3
forty-four miles to the circumference of this island. Both the geo-
grapher, and the natural historian are full of similar mistakes.
According to Strabo, it was once called Samos, or Same; a
name afterwards given to a division, and city of the island.
1 See Justin, b. 43. c. 3. Latrocinio maris, quod illis temporibus gloria; habebatur.
- B. I.e. 5, 6. 3B. 4. p. 331. 4B. 10. p, 4q6.
* Nat. Hist. b. 4. c. 12,